Grjótagjá
The Grjótagjá (German: "crevice") is a cave with a small lake in Iceland .
It is located southeast of Reykjahlíð near Lake Mývatn on road no. 860, directly on the geological fault zone between the continental plates of America and Europe, which is visible even on the surface . The geothermal activity causes the underground lake to warm up.
Use as a bathing cave
Already in the 18th century, the Grjotagjá is said to have served the outlaw Jón Markússon as a living and bathing cave. In 1938 it was rediscovered as a bathing cave by English students. Bathing in the cave was particularly popular between 1950 and 1977, both with locals and tourists.
From 1975 to 1984 geothermal activity in the region increased sharply (so-called Krafla fire ), so that the water temperature rose to 60 ° C and bathing was no longer possible. In addition, it was feared that the cave could collapse due to the increased earthquake activity. During this time, the nearby Stóragjá was used as a "replacement bathing cave". In the spring of 2004 the cave lake was opened for swimming again, the temperature at that time was below 48 ° C. By May 2012 this had decreased to 44.6 °. Today, a sign in the entrance area of the cave indicates that it is privately owned and bathing is prohibited. In July 2018, access to the Kvennagjá ( Women's Gorge ) was blocked. The visitors left too much rubbish like broken glass there.
The cave was used in the 2013 third season of the TV series Game of Thrones as the filming location for the love scene between Jon Snow and Ygritte .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Carl Wilhelm Paijkull: A Summer in Iceland . Chapman and Hall, pp. 281-2.
- ↑ Tómas Einarsson, Helgi Magnússon (ritstj.) Íslands Handbókin, 1 bindi (Örn og Örlygur, 1989) blaðsíða 476
- ↑ Grjótagjá að verða baðfær að nýju
- ↑ Drekka, elda, þvo og hægja sér í gjánni. Retrieved July 11, 2018 (Icelandic).
- ↑ Blog post about the locations of Game of Thrones ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 65 ° 37 '33.7 " N , 16 ° 53' 2.6" W.